Acer Announces ‘World’s Thinnest’ Ultrabook, the Aspire S5

Acer announced its newest model of Ultrabook, the Aspire S5. It’ll eventually replace the Aspire S3, which debuted in September of last year – see our hands-on video of the S3 here.

Acer is calling the S5 the “world’s thinnest” Ultrabook; the 13-inch machine measures just under 0.6 inches thin at its thickest point and weighs just shy of three pounds. For comparison, the 13-inch MacBook Air measures 0.68 inches thin at its thickest point and weighs the same as the S5.

One of the cooler features of the S5 is the “MagicFlip” panel, which is a handful of ports — HDMI, USB and Thunderbolt — concealed inside the back edge of the machine that can be popped out when needed, but otherwise sits flush to keep the computer nice and slim. Check out the quick video below for a look at the MagicFlip panel in action:

Though no hard-and-fast release date or pricing have been set, Acer is promising the S5 in Q2 of this year. One of Acer’s PR reps told me the S5’s price tag will settle in at between $1,000 and $1,300 depending upon the configuration.

Acer also announced that it’ll be expanding its line of slim “Timeline” machines with the Timeline Ultra series (pictured at left), comprised of 14- and 15-inch models. Both models measure less than 0.8 inches thick, and Acer says they’re capable of “more than 8 hours of battery life,” though real-world numbers remain to be seen. They’ll also both sport slim, integrated DVD burners.

The Timeline Ultra models will ship in Q1 – soon, in other words. No word on pricing yet, however, and I couldn’t get a ballpark figure out of Acer’s people either.

And finally, Acer rolled out its own cloud-based service, simply titled AcerCloud. It’ll allow owners of Acer computers to access the music, photos and documents stored on their PCs from Android-powered smartphones and tablets even if the PC is asleep or hibernating, which is a cool trick. The free service will come preinstalled on all consumer Acer computers starting in Q2.

Android will be supported at first, followed by a Windows Phone version. Acer General Manager of Cloud Technology, John Princen, told me that they’re exploring an iPhone app as well, saying, “We want Acer users to be able to access their content on any connected device.”